Child dies as Russian bomb hits playground in Kharkiv

At least five people, including a teenage girl, have been killed in what Kyiv has said was a Russian glide bomb attack on an apartment block in northeast Ukraine.

- TOM WATLING

The daytime attack hit the 12-floor building and the playground in front of it, with multiple cars catching fire. At least 47 people were wounded, according to the governor of the Kharkiv region, Oleh Syniehubov.

“Occupiers killed a child right on the playground,” local mayor Ihor Terekhov said on the Telegram messenger app. Footage showed whole floors of the building on fire with residents heard screaming.

Scenes from the site of the attack were shared widely across Ukrainian social media channels as many expressed fury at the Western allies who have refused to allow Kyiv to use long-range missiles to strike deeper into Russia and hit the source of such bombs.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky reposted a video of the aftermath of the strike, using the incident to reiterate his calls for Kyiv’s Western allies to lift the current ban on deeper strikes.

“The Russian strike on Kharkiv directly on people, on ordinary homes,” he wrote. “This strike was carried out using a Russian guided aerial bomb – a strike that could have been prevented if our Defence Forces had the capability to destroy Russian military aircraft at their bases. We need strong decisions from our partners to stop this terror.”

Earlier, Russia sent volleys of missiles and drones across Ukraine, as part of a week of vicious strikes involving several hundreds of projectiles.